LYNN — Meatland owner Bill Laganas said he’d rather cook for celebrities behind the camera than act with them in front, but he made an exception for Denzel Washington.
“It was fun,” he said. “Would I do it again? Probably not.”
Laganas said he was in the meatpacking district in Boston recently picking up deliveries for his Eastern Avenue store when he noticed crews shooting Washington’s next flick, “The Equalizer,” nearby.
Slated for release in September 2014, “The Equalizer” is a movie version of the classic television show in which a veteran covert operative seeks redemption for his dark deeds by helping ordinary folks.
He said he knew the movie had been shooting in Swampscott the week before and approached the guys working near the set just to talk. Then he left without a second thought, he said.
“I was driving home and my phone rings,” he said. “It’s Columbia Pictures saying, ‘We need a butcher.’”
His first thought was the call was a prank from some buddies, but then the caller persisted, asking if he could come back into the city by 8:30 a.m., he said.
“It was 7:30 a.m. when they called, and it’s the day before the Fourth of July. We’re going to be busy,” he said. “I told them the earliest I could be there was 9:30, 10 a.m.”
They offered to send a car for him, and he relented. After hitting wardrobe, where “they let me wear my Meatland coat” but bought him new pants, Laganas said he spent 12 hours on set.
“There were eight butchers, four dirty and four clean. I was a clean butcher,” he said. “The dirty butchers were cutting meat with saws in the background. I’m shoveling money into a wheelbarrow.”
Laganas said there was literally a pile of money on the floor that he shoveled as well as a stack of neatly piled bills, which he sat on during breaks in filming.
“It looked so real,” he said with a big grin. “It was so tempting to just put some in your pocket, but I didn’t.”
He said they did about 20 takes of the money shoveling scene before switching to another scene where he ran off and was tackled by a member of a South Shore SWAT team that was also in the movie, playing members of, well, a SWAT team.
Taking pictures was strictly forbidden, but Laganas said he did get to meet Washington.
“In between takes I got to talk to Denzel,” he said. “He was telling stories. He was so laid back. A really nice guy.”
Laganas said he also met several other butchers and a meat distributor he didn’t know, so it was a good networking opportunity for him as well.
Laganas has developed a niche since the North Shore has become an increasingly popular location for movie and television shoots. Last year he cooked for the cast and crew of “Grown Ups 2” when it filmed in Swampscott and Marblehead. He has also cooked for the reality show “Flipping Boston,” and local events like Lynn After Dark.
“I’ll cook for anybody,” he said with a laugh. “Which is what I’d rather do than be in a movie.”
Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].
